Monday, January 15, 2007

Hernad makes the News

I went on a weekend to Szolnok and upon my return on Monday I found out that Hernadnemeti, my wonderful small village, has been on the news all weekend! I was also sad to find out that it was not for good reasons, and sadder yet when I found out that the reason happened on Wednesday. Damn the language barrier to disrupt my knowledge of village gossip.

Apparently a nine year old student swung a bag at a teacher, who is the tiniest women I have ever seen mind you, and in the bag there was some wooden object. With one swing of the bag he knocked the teacher to the ground injuring her. Now this student will have to go to court to find out the consequences of his action.

The thing of the matter is however, this child happens to be a Gypsy student. Tensions are high in my school this week pinning Hungarians against the Gypsies. I wonder, being from outside the conflict between the two groups of people, if things would be as escalated as they are had this student been a Hungarian.

What happened was no doubt wrong, but why did it happen? Was this student a jerk because he is a Gypsy? Or is this student a jerk because he is a jerk? As of yet I do not know all of the details of this event, but as I figure out more I will be sure to comment on it, because I am often bored and good gossip can go a long way in an environment where you only understand half of what is said, and more importantly I like to understand what is going on around me and question how I would feel if I were a Hungarian or a Gypsy living with these unwritten rules of conduct.

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